Top priorities of producers across the cotton belt, according to a new Cotton Incorporated survey.
Forty-two percent of respondents cited the combination of seed vigor and stand establishment as a major problem, making it No. 6 on a list of 27 concerns. Another 40 percent rated the issue as a moderate concern. The sixth place ranking in the 2015 survey was the same as in a 2011 assessment.
Production costs topped the list of priorities, with 81 percent of respondents citing that as a major concern and 16 percent tagging it as moderate. Other concerns on the list were weed resistance to herbicides, weed control, cottonseed value, and spread of plant diseases and weeds. Rounding out the top 12 issues were consumer attitudes about agriculture’s impact on the environment, cotton’s tolerance to heat and drought, efficient use of fertilizer, adequate water supply, variety selection, and plant bug control.
Kater Hake, vice president of agricultural and environmental research at Cotton Incorporated, Cary, N.C., reported the survey results in a Cotton Disease Council session at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans. He focused on the cottonseed issue.
“The value of planting seed is critical for growers, and hyper-critical to seed companies,” he says. “All their biotech, regulatory, breeding, testing, and production investments are rolled into that bag of seed — they must sell seed to recover their investment.” They also sell germplasm or traits to other seed companies.
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